In the Underworld
I have lived in the underworld so long:How can you, a creature of light,Without terror understand the songAnd unmoved hear what moves in night?
I am a spirit that yours has found,Strange, undelightful, obscure,Created by some other God, and boundIn terrible darkness, breathing breath impure.
Creature of light and happiness,Deeper the darkness was when you,With your bright terror eddying the distress,Grazed the dark waves and shivering further flew.
Words in this poem
- underworld n.
- The lower of inferior world; the world which is under the heavens; the earth.
- unmoved a.
- Not moved; fixed; firm; unshaken; calm; apathetic.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
In the Underworld is in the public domain. This text is taken from Poems by Isaac Rosenberg, Project Gutenberg ebook #66889; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Isaac Rosenberg, In the Underworld, in Poems (1922), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #66889, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/rosenberg-poems/in-the-underworld.html, id L02520.
Form and metre
In the Underworld is 12 lines in 3 stanzas of 4 lines each. Every stanza rhymes ABAB. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 79%). 92% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 8.8 syllables. 1 line ends on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 17% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in iambic tetrameter.
Measured by Laurel's pipeline, not copied from a handbook: how stress and metre are counted, how rhyme is lettered, how a drifted rhyme is found. Where the dictionary cannot confirm a rhyme the letter is withheld, not guessed.
Rhyme words, stanza by stanza
The word that ends each line, lettered by the rhyme it makes; a dash is a line whose rhyme the dictionary could not confirm.
- 1 ABAB longA · lightB · songA · nightB
- 2 ABAB foundA · obscureB · boundA · impureB
- 3 ABAB happinessA · youB · distressA · flewB
Scansion, line by line
Each line with its syllable count and the stresses the words themselves fix: / stressed, ˘ unstressed, · a syllable the word leaves free and the metre decides. Read against iambic tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| I have lived in the underworld so long: | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| How can you, a creature of light, | 8 | ····/˘·· |
| Without terror understand the song | 9 | ··/˘·˘/·· |
| And unmoved hear what moves in night? | 8 | ·˘/····· |
| I am a spirit that yours has found, | 8 | ···/···· |
| Strange, undelightful, obscure, | 7 | ·····˘/ |
| Created by some other God, and bound | 10 | ˘/˘··/˘··· |
| In terrible darkness, breathing breath impure. | 10 | ·/˘/˘/˘·˘/ |
| Creature of light and happiness, | 7 | /˘···/˘ |
| Deeper the darkness was when you, | 8 | /˘·/˘··· |
| With your bright terror eddying the distress, | 10 | ···/˘/˘·˘/ |
| Grazed the dark waves and shivering further flew. | 10 | ·····/˘/˘· |
The reader shows the same poem with its rhymes coloured and a stress row above each line, the notes beside their stanzas, and any word's definition on a tap; the analysis page takes the whole book apart. How every part of this site was made.